Denver Nuggets / NBA

Nuggets have a lot of options with the No. 22 pick of the NBA draft

Morehead State's Kenneth Faried played in the NCAA Tournament in Denver this year.
(Hyoung Chang, The Post
)

On the one hand, the NBA draft is going to be very tricky for the Nuggets as they try to find the right piece at pick No. 22. After all, will power forward Kenyon Martin re-sign? What about shooting guard J.R. Smith? And what if the Nuggets get an irresistible offer for point guard Raymond Felton? So many questions . . . that won't be answered until after the June 23 draft.

On the other hand, it's all pretty simple.

"You probably try to take the best guy," Denver coach George Karl said. "I don't think you get real philosophical."

The Nuggets have brought in a dozen prospects for workouts and will continue to evaluate players at the Pepsi Center before the draft. Because 21 players will be drafted before the Nuggets use their pick, it's hard to gauge who will be available at No. 22. Numerous mock drafts have different names in that slot, including 6-foot-8 forward Tobias Harris of Tennessee and 6-5 guard Iman Shumpert of Georgia Tech, who was in Denver last week.

"I think to some level it's best player available, but at some point it becomes, 'What's the need?' " Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri said. "Most of our scouting is done during the season. We watch tons of games. But with this, you can actually see them up close, see how quick guys are, see their true size. And you get to look in their eyes. We do a lot of caliber tests and psychological tests."

Advertisement

Karl is confident the Nuggets will extend Nene's contract. But even if Martin re-signs, the Nuggets will take a long look at the low-post prospects. Martin and Chris Andersen are in their 30s and injury-prone. The Nuggets like Timofey Mozgov, but adding another budding post player would be enticing. Maryland's 6-10 Jordan Williams visited Denver last week. He's dropped his weight to 250 pounds and says he has expanded his range. As for Harris, he averaged 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds as a Tennessee freshman.

"Tobias is a versatile player. He can play inside and out," said Ryan Blake, co-director of NBA scouting. "He's a runner and really intelligent too. He knows the game.

"He's very skilled (with his) back to the basket, played heady defense and knows spacing, which is very important when you're young. He doesn't have that huge strength where he can body up on the power forwards right now, but he's not that far away from that. He can make an impact right away, like (previous low draft pick) Landry Fields or (undrafted) Wes Matthews."

The intriguing prospects include 6-8 Kenneth Faried of Morehead State, projected as a low-20s pick. Faried played in a low-profile conference, the Ohio Valley. But some of the voracious rebounders in recent NBA history, including Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace, didn't play on the big stage in college basketball.

Faried averaged 8.0, 13.0, 13.0 and 14.5 rebounds in his four seasons at Morehead State. He became a fan favorite in Denver when he played two games at the Pepsi Center with Morehead State during the NCAA Tournament in March. He helped Morehead State upset fourth-seeded Louisville 62-61 with 17 rebounds and 12 points.

"He doesn't have the bulk. But he has that motor, he has that conditioning and strength," Blake said of Faried, the Ohio Valley Conference male athlete of the year as a senior. "He's not an offensive guy. But he's so competitive. It's not just rebounding. He knows how to set screens and where to go on the court.

"Teams like Denver should love a guy like that because he does all the intangibles to make the other guys better. . . . He's like a bass player in a band."

The Nuggets don't have a second-round pick in the 2011 draft. Two years ago, they traded that pick to the Detroit Pistons for Arron Afflalo, who became the Nuggets' starting shooting guard. Afflalo plans to re-sign with Denver this summer.

Who's on the board at No. 22?

The Nuggets have the 22nd pick in the June 23 NBA draft. Here are some possible players:

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.